Wedding Cake Pavilion in Waddesdon, the Rothschild Stately Home in England

 The latest wonder at Waddesdon is the wedding cake style pavilion. The Rothschild family have made the property over to the National Trust, but are still heavily involved. 

They have commissioned this extrardinary building. Nothing else in the world like it. Weird. Wonderful. Romantic. Unique.

You can book a tour through the Waddesdon website.

It was designed by Portuguese designer Joana Vasconcelos.

In summer the grounds are worth visitng.

Angela Lansbury, at Waddesdon in summer.

The 3 storey wedding cake pavilion is 12 metres high and stands near the dairy built by Ferdinand de Rothschild. 

The name Rothschild means red shield.

The Prtugues surname Vasconcelos is from a town in Spain. The name is also found in Brazil.

Useful Websites

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-12413391/Inside-incredible-12-metre-high-Wedding-Cake-pavilion-Buckinghamshire-decorated-frosted-mermaids-icing-like-tiles-buttercream-stairs.html

https://www.designboom.com/art/joana-vasconcelos-ceramic-wedding-cake-pavilion-waddesdon-manor-02-24-2023/

Wikipedia Waddesdon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor

Waddesdon Website

https://waddesdon.org.uk/your-visit/grounds/wedding-cake-at-waddesdon/

Guided Tour

https://www.getyourguide.com/-

The Deisgner Joana Vasconcelos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joana_Vasconcelos

Rothschild wine from NZ and 5 arrows label representing, guess what! Also tea at Waddesdon in England.

5 arrows in Maori

The five sons of Mayer Amschel Rothschild were known as the five arrows. 

The five arrows hotel at the gates of Waddeson, in England, has 16 bedrooms and if you don't have the time or money or can't get a booking, or don't drink wine, they do afternoon teas, Wednesday to Saturday.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artists_who_have_created_a_Ch%C3%A2teau_Mouton_Rothschild_label

https://www.fivearrowshotel.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/thefivearrowswaddesdon/

Trade show  for those in the beverage and food business

The next Vinexpo Asia is in 2024 in Hong Kong, May 28-30 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC)

https://vinexpoasia.com/newfront/marketplace/

Please share links to your favourite blog posts.

Wonderful Waddesdon, once home of the wealthy Rothschilds, now a National Trust property

I was at Waddesdon. The first thing to note about this place is the correct spelling if you are looking it up. Not stone not ston but don.

William Brougham suggested the caption: 'The future's bright; The future's orange.' That was the slogan of orange mobile phones from 1994.

Another suggestion was Angel from heaven, (title of a song)

Is it worthwhile visiting only the grounds and not the house? You need a timed ticket to enter the building (to prevent overcrowding during Covid. 

Stairs

Unfortunately the buildings's architects had not thought of two staircases everywhere to create a one-way system. If you want to go from the ground floor up to the top floor with bedrooms and bathroom and treasures, and down to the wine cellar, you might want to hold onto the rope hand rails so you could wear disposable or washable gloves and carry hand sanitiser. 

Toilets

To get to the toilets from the main building you go down flights of stairs. However, the toilets are accessible from the outside of the building on the ground floor outdoor through a short curved tunnel, which is handy for those who don't like stairs, or if you are outside the buildings.

The shop

The shop has lots of items, books and postcards of the house exterior, aerial shots, and paintings. Also books by a member of the family, fact and fiction, softback and paperback signed by the author and unsigned.

Getting There 

 I was lucky enough to be given a place on a trip to Waddesdon in Buckinghamshire on a coach tour organized by a group of which I am not a member. My friend was going. I expressed interest. She phoned the organizer the night before and found they had a cancellation and would be glad to take my money so they could refund the person who had cancelled. Win-win all round. 

The next generation may have inherited the wealth as well as the organizational ability of this family, but you have to admire their enterprise. I have trouble dealing with a small detail like fixing a lock or garden on an already built house. These people looked at a piece of land, decided I want a house here, in such and such a design, to house my paintings, and so on. One of the family bequeathed the house the family built, the treasures they collected, and the land with all the trees and plants they planted, to the National Trust. One of the inside rooms shows what they did for Israel, building the parliament building, a poly-uni, a home for the war wounded and a home for the blind.

The Ground Floor

Downstairs to the Wine Cellars

See the wine bottle label commissioned from famous artists. Chairs have wine scenes on the upholstery.

Upstairs

Bedrooms. The tallest bed you have ever seen. A bathroom. Toilets are covered. Because children of tourist day visitors kept lifting up the toilet lids to let them slam down.

Lunch

Outdoors. Kiosk in the courtyard sold for just under five pounds a brown or back bread bun with a filling of avocado and egg and green salad. Healthy looking and filling. 

My friend bought one of the fruit-flavoured bottles of drink. Elderflower and something. They took credit cards and no cash.

We played musical chairs with tables in the sun and shade and other lurking ladies who lunched.

The shop

I bought a glittery lanyard. I saw lots of honey costing less than five pounds. 

I was tempted to buy water colour pens - a suitable item to sell to visitors inspired by a house full of paintings. The friend I was travelling with had a sketchbook and pencil and drew trees and a doorway and elephant sculptures. I consoled myself by suggesting, "One can always take a photo and paint from it later".

She replied, 'That is not the same. It is an unedited scene, which everybody sees. I like to draw what my eye selects, at the time."

When we arrived, I thought the time allowed, from about 11.30 to 4.30, was too long. 

When we were there in August the rose garden had been converted into late flowering gladioli. Instead we walked back to the house to find the toilets before boarding the bus which we reached in good time. We did not have time to see the converted rose garden.

Gustave Moreau Exhibition

I should mention the Gustave Moreau Exhibition which is on this summer. Vivid, weird, colourful paintings of oversize men with horse's hooves and women with wings. Myths and symbols. Not my taste. Pictures and a short video. Must book, with timed entry to prevent overcrowding. 

As Samuel Johnson, who wrote the dictionary, and travelled with biographer Boswell, so succinctly put it, 'worth seeing but not worth going to see'. I was glad to glimpse the exhibition so as not to waste any more time or money on seeing it again. In addition, the disturbing sight of the scenes of people perched in odd poses left me uneasy that the painter's sitters would have back problems. The contrast with what I saw elsewhere in the building before and after made me appreciate the other restful realistic paintings in the house, of real people, demure, charming, children, morose millionaires perhaps worrying about their money, and wise women standing straight upright.

Waddesdon Manor

Aylesbury

Buckinghamshire

England

UK

Useful Websites

https://waddesdon.org.uk/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor

https://www.facebook.com/WaddesdonManor/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Moreau

Must see video

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/waddesdon-manor/features/summer-in-the-garden-at-waddesdon#

How many gardeners and plants. What is unique about Waddesdon?

Creating a picture from a photo using bedding plants. 

The Rothschild's Waddesdon House, garden, Elephants and National Trust Shops

 I was agreeably surprised to learn that you can visit Waddesdon house and gardens. You have to buy timed tickets. If you are a member of the national trust you can visit for free at the allocated time.

I looked online. They have the wooden elephants on display in the gardens. 

A friend of mine is visiting tomorrow Wed 18 August and will report back and send us some photos.

The set tea at 25 pounds was a price which made my family gasp. We used to get a Michelin lunch in London for that price.

Useful Website

https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/

Visit the homes of Shaw, Webster, Disraeli and the Rothschilds - and Remember Their Famous Sayings

The Rothschilds educated the children of the East End of London and Webster taught immigrants to read and write in the modified Americanisms we know today. You can visit the homes of Shaw in England and Webster in the USA, but first let's learn a little of their history.


Caricature of Bernard Shaw. New York Public library. Wikipedia.

Here's a caricature of Shaw by Beerbohm in The New York Public Library. In England you can visit Shaw's House. Shaw is famous for plays including Pygmalion, written in 1913, which inspired the musical My Fair Lady which included the song, Why can't the English teach their children how to speak!

The English used to teach their children how to speak. As a schoolchild in London, England, I was offered elocution lessons.

Dickens and Fagin
Dickens published a story about Fagin, based on a true character. This book echoed current antisemitism and inspired a wave of antisemitism.  You can visit Dickens House museum in the centre of London near the British Museum. Other places associated with Dickens are around England.

During Dickens' lifetime, wellwishers were appalled at the animosity directed towards both the Jews, and towards Dickens.

Dickens House Museum, 48 Doughty Street, London, England, UK

Dickens Study in Dickens House, London, England. Picture from Wikipedia.

To counteract the image of Fagin, George Eliot wrote Daniel Deronda, in which the hero married a virtuous Jewish girl whose father is a ne-er do well who causes her embarrassment.

But a book was not enough. The rich Rothschild banking family stepped in. The Rothchilds were good organizers and gave money to rebuild churches. One of them had set up The Bank of England, which later helped pay troops in the first world war..The Rothschilds stepped in to improve the English language and character and appearance of the poor East End Jews. The Rothschilds set up The Jewish Free School in London's East End. Mrs Rothchild herself went into the school and listened to the children read. The poor children were given free uniforms and the pockets were sewn up so the children could not slouch. The school had over 1,000 pupils and was the biggest school in England and Europe.

I remember puzzling over the fact that my late father and his parents lived in the Jewish East End but did not have 'East End' accents but spoke perfect English. Why? Researching back over the history of the East End in the 1880s for a yet to be published novel based on my family history, answered this question. For several years, in London's East End, you were surrounded by a thousand children, plus school leavers, who were trained to read and write and speak perfect English.
You can take walking tours of the Jewish East End, and see the outsides of several famous buildings.

Disraeli
In England you can visit several homes once built, owned or inhabited by the famous Rothschilds, friends of Queen Victoria and her favourite minister, the charismatic, witty Disraeli. (He was born in the East End, a Jew.but his whole family was converted to Christianity when he was a child. This didn't stop members of Parliament sneering at him for being a Jew, inspiring Disraeli's witty retorts. My favourite quotation from Disraeli is, When I want to read a novel, I write one. When he was dying he turned down the offer of being visited by Queen Victoria with the sentiment, "No, thank you. She will only want me to take a message to Albert." (Just in case you missed it, that was a reference to Queen Vicotria's long deceased husband.")

You can see a synagogue in the East End which Disraeli and his family attended.

Waddesdon

Waddesdon and The Rothschilds
North of London, in Hertfordshire, is Waddesdon, now a National Trust property, which was built by the Rothschilds.

Nearby are Disraeli's home, his burial place, and his statue.

(Today's Post being written. Come back for more later. Meanwhile read yesterdays post about American and British English.)

If you are stuck at home, kept in your country, not allowed entry into another, or the venue is closed, at least during Covid-19 you have time to revisit on line the places you visited previously, and to plan to visit your favourites when travel plans become easier and the homes of your favourite famous characters are opened.

If you find the place you wanted to visit has closed, you might consider joining the 'Friends of' society following the author or famous character, and joining their campaign to have the homes associated with the character re-opened to the public. If you are retired, or want work experience, you might look for a job as a volunteer.

Webster
Over in the USA, you can visit the home of Webster, who wrote the American dictionary. While properties are closed, you will have to let your fingers do the walking (slogan from Yellow pages phone directory, UK) and enjoy reading about your favourite famous people online. The good news is that Dickens House in London opens today, July 25th.

Homes and Places to Visit

UK

Dickens House Museum
London
Re-opens today July 25. You must book for timed entry to prevent overcrowding which is a safety issue for staff and visitors during covid-19.


USA
Statue of Dickens and Little Nell, Philadelphia, USA

Homes of Rothschilds
Waddesdon

Home of Shaw
Shaw Corner
National Trust property. Currently closed (July 2020). When open, appeals for volunteers.

Waddesdon
In July grounds are open but wildflowers instead of colourful flower displays. You must pre-book to avoid overcrowding. Free exhibition on Roses. House opens September. Shop open selling wines, sandwiches and gifts. You are asked to bring masks to wear in the shop and on the shuttle bus (which must also be booked). You can sign up to be sent news.

USA
Home of Webster who wrote the Dictionary which still bears his name, and the English textbooks for immigrants, children and adults learning English.


Webster Family Home, USA

Daniel Webster Birthplace, Franklin, New Hampshire, USA. Photo from Wiki.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is the author of Wedding Speeches and Toasts (see the author profile and books on Amazon).
Angela is also the author of Quick Quotations (see lulu.com).
If you would like to comment or ask for a post on a favourite person or place, contact Angela through LinkedIn, Facebook or Toastmasters.
Angela is PR for Braddell Heights Advanced and a member of four other clubs, Singapore International Online, Tampines Changkat Advanced, Tiarel, and Harrovians (in Harrow, London, England). All are meeting online during Covid-19 and keen to welcome visitors and potential new members.

For quotations see Wikiquote

Or my book
Quick Quotations (Lulu.com)
Who Said What When (Lulu.com)

Useful Websites
https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/angela-lansbury/quick-quotations/paperback/product-1rejp7p8.html
https://waddesdon.org.uk/your-visit/
https://dickensmuseum.com/

Come back every day to read a new post.
I have many more posts on famous authors, and sites in the UK, USA, and worldwide. Also several posts on learning languages. Please read my other posts and share links to your favourite posts with your faourite colleagues, friends and members of your family.

Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, a Rothschild home, and National Trust, a great place to visit

Waddesdon Manor is in the news this month for sad reasons, an aircraft small plane collision nearby. Everybody in the area and London knows of Waddesdon Manor which is a National Trust Property. Who lived there? The Rothschilds.

The place is instantly recognizable from the grand fountain at the start of the direct drive (no curves) giving an uninterrupted view. I like the grander word, vision of the house. I like the word vision because one immediately gets visions, imaginary pictures, memories, or everything one associates with the house and with the Rothschilds.

If you can't afford the time and money to visit the house, as is usually the case with big museums and houses, you can still see the shop and the tea room and the grounds.

Aylesbury, Bucks. Near Tring. Disraeli lived in the same area. No coincidence. Disraeli and the Rothschilds were great pals.

I love stories about Disraeli and the Rothschilds. Some of my favourites:

Disraeli, dying, asked whether he wished to be visited by Queen Victoria, declined, saying, "She will only want me to take a message to Albert."

It is worthwhile joining the National Trust for a year if you want to visit a property every weekend or, like some American visitors, to spend a week or more visiting two properties every day. Also look for other perks when joining schemes.

I once joined a Saatchi museum scheme. Even if I didn't go back a second visit ever, it was worthwhile joining for one visit, because I got a reduction in the restaurant where four of us had lunch plus a reduction in the gift shop.

The Rothschilds were 'citizens of the world', (said by Gandhi, quoting somebody else, and me, quoting Gandhi.)
Online, you can find out about buying greeting cards, ordering potatoes, plasterwork, or even Japanese goods when you visit Japan.

Useful Websites
National Trust UK
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/join-us
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waddesdon_Manor
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/waddesdon-manor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothschild_properties_in_the_Home_counties

National Trust for Scotland
https://www.nts.org.uk/Home/

Would you believe it! They have teamed up with a Japanese store:
https://shop.nationaltrust.org.uk/hankyu-department-stores-japan/i80

See my previous posts.
One I wrote on everything in Aylesbury:

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
See my other new blog:
http://www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

Kosher French Wine - label translation, tasting and purchase at Hedonism Shop near Berkeley Square

"I can resist everything except temptation." Hedonism Wines quotes Oscar Wilde on their kosher Tasting notes. Who could resist the chance to taste Kosher wine?

Our group of tasters was a mixture, from the young, slim and eager to taste and talk, happy to get merry and risk getting drunk, to the mature, well-fed and silently suspicious who spat into the spittoon, determined to drive home sober. One taster demanded jovially, "Why no crackers and cheese! ("Maybe one day. But it must be matzoh," I muttered.)

Knowledge of wine varied, including someone in the business as consultant to suppliers, someone sitting WSET level 3 (Wine and spirit educational trust), and someone not yet at WSET level 1, and a couple of glamorous young Americans who drink only kosher wine, and somebody who admitted he knew nothing and asked all the questions nobody else even thought of asking.

Rogov's Guide to Israeli Wines

I presume kosher wine is made and drunk in Israel. I've seen it in London, the UK. Where else? The USA. And Canada.

I must admit that before I went to a kosher wine tasting at Hedonism's grand two storey shop - the size of small department store with a grand staircase, my knowledge of kosher wines was limited. I wanted to know if kosher wines taste different, how are they made, where can you buy them, and what do the labels tell you, and are they more expensive.

As we sat looking at the labels of the bottles I knew that the French word chateau meant castle or manor in French, and French winemakers' rules say that if you show a chateau on a label it must be the place where the wine comes from.

But what was the word starting with m - meshuval? In my mind it evokes the word meshuggah - mad - nothing to do with sugar. No, not Sh-V  - it's M-V-SH mevushal. Why would a bottle proudly claim not mevushal? It is to do with heat treating (like pasteurising) which might sterilise but could spoil the flavour. Heat treatment can be reduced to a quick zap.

Yes, I've had kosher wines at bar mitzvah's and weddings and bought them to take to orthodox friends - those kosher for Pesach wines are handy if you are ever invited to a Seder night to celebrate Passover. But I must confess my knowledge of everyday or every Friday night or festival wine was limited to the Palwin's and Kedem wines sold in the delicatessens and kosher sections in Tesco Express. My knowledge of expensive such as French kosher wine was limited to the French Rothschild wines with labels showing Picasso and Salvador Dali and other great artists. I recently bought a poster of the wine labels from the Waddesdon (now National Trust) shop at the English ancestral home of the Rothschilds north of London.
 
So it was a delight to be at a free wine tasting in central London and have the mysteries of kosher wine explained by Frenchman Jonathan. He spoke English with a delightfully amusing French accent, a Gallic grin and exuberant gestures as he showed us bottles of French kosher wine and explained their labels.

Wines go back to biblical times and beyond. I can identify a bunch of grapes and I can spot the word Kosher written in Hebrew - C-Sh-R, written left to right. The C is backwards. The letter R is also backwards - it looks like a small case R in Greek and Russian and the sign for Toys R us and in Hebrew. Also I'm sure as in the root language Aramaic (spoken by the High Priest at the temple, by Jesus, a Roman of two thousand years ago and his translator) as well as its two derivatives/links Arabic and Hebrew.

Passover is another word I've learned to recognise, even though I keep re-learning and re-forgetting Hebrew (and Russian and Greek) every year. The word passover appears in Hebrew and is translated somewhere nearby on the label in English and if you are catering for a wedding or have time on your hands and like languages there's always Google Translate for French and Hebrew.

How do you start to produce a kosher wine? If you are in Israel it must be easy. But what about a country such as France? Can anybody do it? Do you need to own a vineyard?

The good news is no, you can take an existing mass market or prestige vineyard and ask them to start producing kosher wine. Even if you are a rich entrepreneur who already owns vineyards, such as a Rothschild or even a earthy or well-connected and determined individual who has in mind big sales of the wine you can go to an existing producer of good wines and ask if they are willing to produce kosher wines. Where will you sell the wines? To caterers of big events such as weddings, retailers across the world?

If your chosen winemaker agrees, you then seek out the authority which sets out the rules and gives you inspection and the authentication. For example, in France you might choose the Beth Din of Paris. Look on the bottle label and you will see not only the words kosher in English or another language and Hebrew but the name or sign of the authenticating body.

Why would anybody want to buy kosher wine? It is not a matter of supporting Israel or Jewish businesses (although for some people it could be.) If the drinker is orthodox (or vegan) they might want a wine which does not use animal products such as egg white at the end of the process.

The wines we tasted were shown in the pictures below.

If you go to Hedonism, near Berkeley Square (remember the song, A Nightingale sang in Berkeley Square) dress warmly. Hedonism is like the frozen food area of a supermarket, temperature controlled  for the comfort of the wine, not the comfort of the customer. However, if you are sitting at a tasting downstairs by the Enoteca the large tasters' chairs have a blanket on each one.

Prices? What's good value? Tastings where Hedonism charges (last one was £25) for the tasting but gives you a voucher if you buy the wines you have just tasted. Decanters at £40 were good value compared to Elsewhere. Huge choice of wines. Chance to drink a glass you would not otherwise afford from the Enoteca wine dispenser machines. (From about £2-3 for a glass of the cheapest wine.)

What's pricier?
Up to £30 from the wine dispensing machine for a glass for a special occasion to taste a wine whose bottle would be very expensive or not even available at most restaurants and wine bars. You can find kosher wines by other makers and even the same people on line, sometimes at cheaper prices. But if you are already in London or want the Hedonism experience this is a grand way to do your tasting and shopping in elegant surroundings with knowledgeable staff.

Hedonism Wines 3-7 Davies Street, London WiK 3LD
events@hedonism.co.uk
tel: 020 7290 7870

Next post is on Berkeley Square, London.